The purpose of this study is to identify ways to formalize a collaborative partnership between University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC)/Correctional Health Managed Care (CMHC) researchers and the Connecticut Department of Correction (CDOC). The goal is to institutionalize a research process that can produce findings that are potentially beneficial to inmates, correctional facilities, and the correctional system. This two-step application builds upon a statewide strategic planning process initiated in 2007 that recognizes the benefits of research in corrections, and the uniqueness of conducting research in correctional settings. What is unique are the adaptations and accommodations required for evidence-based practices to be applied within security intensive correctional settings. To this end, a team of UCHC/CMHC and CDOC partners has collaborated to design this study to investigate procedures that contribute to effective research planning, implementation and evaluation activities with the mutual goal of addressing the health and safety of inmates and employees. The first step will provide data for the utility of a newly modified assessment tool, the Corrections Modified Global Assessment of Functioning (CM-GAF), designed to evaluate the psychological, social and occupational functioning of inmates. The development of the CM-GAF, funded by NIMH (Mental Health Research Infrastructure in Corrections Grant # 5R24-MH067030-04) has implications for the safety and security of inmates and correctional staff during periods of incarceration and for post-release treatment planning. The second step, an ethnographic evaluation study of the processes utilized to implement the CM-GAF assessment tool, will lead to recommendations for system research policies and procedures as specified in the application outcomes. The aim of this study is to institutionalize a research process that can produce findings that are beneficial to inmates and the correctional system. This two-step application first validates a newly modified assessment tool, the Corrections Modified Global Assessment of Functioning (CM-GAF);and in a second step conducts an ethnographic evaluation study of the processes utilized to implement the CM-GAF assessment tool. The expected outcome is to affect system changes for the conduct of research required for evidence-based practices to be applied within security intensive correctional settings.